Fight, Talk, Protect, and Flirt
by Just a Little Spark
Summary: "If a boy and a girl fight like a married couple, talk like best friends, protect each other like brother and sister, and flirt like first loves... then they're certainly meant to be!" NejiTen, because I love them. R&R, please!


_If a boy and a girl fight like a married couple..._

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><p>"Shut <em>up<em>!" Tenten rolled her eyes. "So _what_ if I didn't throw the last kunai straight? I was throwing a lot of things at the same time, do you expect me to actually keep track of all them?" she crossed her arms, and looked at the jonin in front of her, who was looking very pissed off, himself.

"I was merely suggesting, Tenten, that you throw straighter. You see, one miss could mean the downfall of our mission," Neji shot back in a montone, being completely unreasonable.

Lee sighed, and facepalmed as he watched the two of them go at it. Gai-sensei was sick, and had told Lee that he could go and 'observe the youthfulness of your teammates overflowing youth!'. What kind of _youth_ was in screaming matches? "Break it up already, guys," Lee tried to say.

"Oh, and like _everyone _can be as perfect as you, Hyuuga Neji," Tenten said in a mockingly sweet tone, fluttering her eyes at him.

"Well, not everyone makes as many mistakes as you, so-called Weapons Mistress," Neji sneered, and immediately regretted it.

Their black-haired, bug-eyed teammate sucked in a breath. Nagging Tenten was one thing (one thing Lee was sure he would never do _again_), but mocking her title as the Weapons Mistress...

_Kiba was in bed for a week_, Lee remembered with a shudder. _Oh, Neji-san... what are you thinking?_

Tenten scowled. "You know what? You're just a stuck-up, freaking, monotonous, unfeeling know-it-all that doesn't accept mistakes. Ugh!" With every word, Tenten stepped closer and closer to Neji until she was right in his face. She looked up at him, and Neji was shocked to find a slight trace of tears in her eyes. She looked at him furiously, and then disappeared, supposedly going home as fast as she could.

Neji, still stunned, stood rooted in the spot. _I made her cry..._ he thought guiltily.

Lee stood up and walked over to his teammate. "I would apologize, if I were you," Lee suggested. Neji grunted, and rolled his eyes at his teammate. In the absense of Gai-sensei, Lee was a very serious person. This was probably due to Lee's growing older, but whenever Gai-sensei was gone, he would turn into a sick combination of their friends in Konoha - Naruto's tenacity, Shino's seriousness, Sasuke's smugness (whenever he was right, of course), Shikamaru's thoughtfulness, Kiba's nosy nature, Sakura's temper (although that happened rarely- very rarely) and Sai's bluntness.

"Hn."

"Admit it - that was a low blow," Lee said, raising an eyebrow.

Neji sighed, and without a word, raced off to Tenten's house. Lee smiled.

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><p><em>Knock-knock-knock...<em>

"Tenten?" Neji knocked on the door to the two story house. "Tenten." He sighed, and finally sat on the stairs leading up to the door. She hadn't been this mad at him since... well... ever.

He turned his head around as the door creaked open, and he saw her standing there in white and pinked striped sweats, hair down, and brow doe-eyes staring (glaring) at him. Neji stood up, and walked hastily to her. "Tenten, I-"

"Say what you want to say, and leave," Tenten said.

Neji rolled his eyes. "I was getting to that... anyway. Tenten, I'm sorry. What I said was completely uncalled for, and I shouldn't have made a big deal out of the kunai thing anyway, and I... hope you'll forgive me," Neji said in a low mumble.

Tenten's eyes softened, but knew better than to ask him to repeat himself. She allowed a small smile, and opened the door wider. "You're forgiven." She looked up at him. "I'm sorry too, I said a few mean things."

Neji merely nodded, and the corner of his lips lifted a little - only one sign of how relieved he was that he and Tenten were on the right track.

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><p><em>Talk like best friends...<em>

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><p>"...and then Sakura, just out of the blue, went and kissed Lee on the mouth! Isn't that sweet?" Tenten cooed, as she and Neji walked home together after practice. It was a tradition of theirs, anyway - after practice, they'd eat somewhere, then Neji would walk her home.<p>

Neji smirked. "Well, well," he said simply, as he enjoyed the serene streets of Konoha on a Wednesday afternoon.

"I know!" Tenten sighed. "Imagine. After all these years..." she snapped out of her dreamy reverie. "I'm so proud of him!"

He smiled at his teammate's (and closest friend) obvious happiness at Lee's newfound love. Okay, it wasn't really 'newfound'. That was one thing he liked about her. Her genuine happiness and concern - _wait, one thing I like about her?_

"Neji?" Tenten, walked back a few steps, after noticing that Neji had stopped in his tracks, "Neji. What's wrong?" she looked at him, bewildered, as his pearly eyes seemed to space out.

He shook his head, and blinked. "It was nothing, Tenten," he said, and resumed walking, just as he usually did.

And just like he expected her to, she caught up to him. "Seriously. What was that?" Tenten asked him, looking up curiosly at him.

"Tell me what happened between Ino and Shikamaru again?" Neji asked, pretending to be interested.

"Oh, come on, Neji." Tenten rolled her eyes. "I knew that you wouldn't be interested in the lovelives of others if your life depended on it."

Neji merely cracked one of those rare smiles, and kept silent for the rest of the walk to Tenten's house.

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><p><em>Protect each other like brother and sister...<em>

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><p><em>Clang!<em>

The sound of metal against metal resounded across the open space, where Team Gai had - unfortunately- encountered a bunch of rogue ninja on their way home from Sunagakure, where they had just finished a simple mission.

"Kaiten!" a light blue ball of chakra appeared around Neji as a shower of shuriken hailed above him.

Gai and Lee went and started picking off the group one at a time through hand-to-hand combat, while Tenten, positioned in the trees, used her ninja tools to make them stay where she could see them.

It was a great tactic - and for which Team Gai was known for being such a well-oiled machine. Neji took care of the ones that Tenten couldn't handle, Gai and Lee did their Taijutsu attacks and knocked them out, and Tenten made sure that everyone stayed in place, and that she could see-

With a gasp, she summoned and fired off five shuriken into the back of one ninja who had attempted to sneak on Lee while the latter was beating up another ninja. As the ninja dropped dead behind her teammate, she breathed a sigh of relief.

Neji did his Graceful fist technique, and finished off with his group at the same time Lee and Gai let their last opponents fall. "Looks like we got all of them!" Gai proclaimed proudly. "Everyone, that was a youthful-"

"Tenten, behind you!" Neji, Byakugan still activated, had scoured the area, just to be safe, if there were other ninja around to spring them. And luckily, he had found the one ninja sneaking up behind Tenten in the trees.

Tenten looked around, and saw the glint of a kunai zooming towards her, and straight towards her heart-

_Clang..._

A kunai, thrown from below, hit the other kunai aimed for Tenten in a flash. Then, before Tenten could summon more weapons to finish off this last one, three shuriken and a kunai launched towards a specific place in the trees, and by the sickening sound of metal piercing flesh, repeated four times, Tenten knew that it was a hit.

She glanced down, smiling. "Arigato, Neji," she called out, and jumped down from the trees.

He blinked, and deactivated his Byakugan, sure that there were no other ninja near them that could be a threat at the moment.

"We should be thanking _you_, my youthful teammate!" Lee exclaimed, racing towards her and snatching her up in a big embrace, swinging her around in a circle. "You think I did not notice that one near the end? I would not be here if not for you!" smiling hugely, he put her down. Tenten smiled.

"Well, I would probably be lying in a pool of blood if not for Neji," she pointed out.

Neji merely shrugged.

Gai nodded, and yelled, "Alright now, Team Youth! Let us move on to Konoha, for we are close by!" He and Lee started to 'have a youthful race down to the gates of Konoha', and Tenten hung back to hang around with Neji.

"I thought we were Team Gai?" Tenten asked rhetorically.

Neji chuckled.

After a few minutes of silence, Neji put a hand on her shoulder. "It was no problem, Tenten. Remember. I always have your back."

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><p><em>And flirt like first loves...<em>

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><p>Tenten lay down in a peaceful meadow, one that she could rightfully call 'hers', where the grass certainly was greener, where there was a little hill, which sloped gently down to a little pond, which was very clear and calm, save for the few ripples due to the wind. She closed her eyes, forgetting everything around her, and started to think about random things.<p>

_Wow, Neji sure looked hot yesterday,_ was the first thing that came into mind. Her eyes flew open in disbelief. "What the hell...?" she questioned herself, wondering why in the world the first thing that came into her mind was Hyuuga Neji, among all people. She shook her head. "He's my best friend, of course..."

_He's your _hot_ best friend..._ an inner voice taunted her. _Shut up!_ Tenten screamed. She closed her eyes, and lay back, using her arms as a pillow, and watched the clouds go by, thinking of Shikamaru, who did the same thing, and of how she couldn't really see shapes in any of the clouds except for the one that looked strangely like the mark on Neji's forehead, the-

Tenten facepalmed herself. _Why in the world must everything I think of now be about him?_ The nineteen year old tried to force herself to think about something else - something completely random, so that she couldn't even think about Neji. She forced her eyes closed.

_I'm almost out of bento boxes,_ she thought randomly. _Oh! Hinata-san always uses some, since she sends food over to Naruto... the little love birds,_ she thought smugly. _I'm sure she probably has a few extra spares. I guess I'll go over to the Hyuuga compound next-_

As she thought the word 'Hyuuga', she was suddenly filled with a light feeling. She would go. And she would see...

She tried not to think his name, or say it, but her head started filling up with pictures of pearly Byakugan eyes, long, dark hair that was silky to the touch, and a deep voice that was heaven to her ears-

"It's very peaceful here."

Tenten all but screamed as she leaped up and took note of the boy _she had just been thinking about_ laying neither too far nor too close to where she had been laying down. Neji, whose eyes had been closed, opened one eye to look at her, slightly amused at her defensive stance, and closed it. "Are you alright?"

"You almost gave me a heart attack there!" she yelled at him. "Geez! What's wrong with you?"

"You seemed very peaceful when I found you. I didn't want to disturb you," he said calmly, not opening his eyes.

Sighing, and deciding to let it drop, Tenten sat on the ground, close to Neji. "How did you find me, anyway?"

"Seeing as I'm so attuned to your chakra, I found you easily," he said simply.

"Why were you looking for me?" Tenten asked him, curiosity getting the best of her.

"Lots of questions," Neji said.

"Please? Just that last one," Tenten begged. She had a feeling it was something important.

"I have something to tell you."

Tenten was silent, waiting for him to say it. She watched as he lay down in the grass, eyes closed. She wondered if he was asleep. "Oh. What is it?"

"I think about you all the time," Neji said in a monotone, eyes still closed.

"Eh? E-E-Excuse me, Neji?"

"Are you deaf?"

"I... want to hear that again."

Neji now opened his eyes, and looked at her from her head to her toe. "I think about you all the time." he reached a hand up, cupped her face, and then quickly snaked his other hand around her neck and brought her down for a very long kiss.

Shocked, Tenten's eyes were wide open as he proceeded with giving her the best kiss of her life. She got rid of the feeling to run away in shock, and closed her eyes, adjusting herself so that she could be more comfortable.

After a few minutes of kissing each other in Tenten's little meadow, Tenten leaned back and broke the kiss. Neji looked a little disappointed at that, and Tenten grinned. She lay down on his chest and smiled as she felt one of his hands play absentmindedly with a few strands of her hair that had gotten loose.

"I think about you all the time, too." Tenten smiled.

After a few minutes of silence, she spoke again. "Neji, I love you." she said bravely.

She felt him smile as he leaned down and kissed the top of her head. "I love you too."

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><p><em>Then, they're certainly made to be with each other!<em>

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><p><em><strong>OWARI~ aaaaah! first time in like FOREVER since I've written something! I only got the chance to write this since i was really inspired by that quote, and wanted to write it so bad for Neji and Tenten! I'm on vacation, and I'll be back at my house next Sunday, so, readers of Afterpurple who are reading this, expect that long awaited fifth chapter to be next week. :D don't hate me! <strong>_

_**Please review. I'll love you if you do. :3**_


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